Week 7 Reflection: Race & Health

May 24

Adia Benton asks how we are to interpret two cases of western doctors falling ill with Ebola in Sierra Leone (Benton, 2014). One case sees the successful extraction to Ghana for two Dutch doctors with suspected Ebola. The other a fatal refusal by the World Health Organization to help a single doctor with actual Ebola. Benton positions the comparison as a moral one of unexamined racial dimension, with those afforded the privilege of protection because of their skin, granted access to resources unavailable to all (Benton in Joiner, 2024a). She aligns her argument with Fassin’s distinction that there is a difference between the worth of lives and the value of life (Fassin in Joiner, 2024a), with those of white western origin being worth more than those of African black.

Like Kleinman, Benton argues this racism is a failure of humanity (Kleinman, 1989). Another layer of structural violence placed upon the suffering of West Africans by those in developed countries (Farmer, 1996). And while she makes a compelling moral case that all life has value, where the economic, cultural and racial politics should be irrelevant in the case of who gets treatment (Roberts, 2016), it ignores the dimension of expertise. Might we not make a nonmaleficence argument (Petryna in Joiner, 2024b) that doctors’ lives are worth more, not because of racial bias or privilege, because they have the capacity to save others at scale? Does the medical professional’s ability to treat, transcend an argument of broader racial injustice? We might argue that not saving the doctors is itself a failure of humanity, given the increased risk for existing sufferers. In the context of epidemic, a doctor’s expertise in treatment offers them an immunity and access not because of the color of their skin, but because of the privilege of what they can do for others. What could be more humane than that?

References:
Benton, A. (2014). Race and the immuno-logics of Ebola response in West Africa. Somatosphere.com. [Digital File]. Retrieved from: https://somatosphere.com/2014/race-and-the-immuno-logics-of-ebola-response-in-west-africa.html/.
Farmer, P. (1996). On Suffering and Structural Violence. Daedalus , Winter, 1996, Vol. 125, No. 1. [Digital File]. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20027362.pdf.
Joiner, M. (2024a). Week 7 Required Lecture (47:30). [Digital File]. Retrieved from: https://canvas.upenn.edu/courses/1781220/pages/week-7-required-lecture-47-30?module_item_id=29900599.
Joiner, M. (2024b). Week 6 Required Lecture (51:10). [Digital File]. Retrieved from: https://canvas.upenn.edu/courses/1781220/pages/week-6-required-lecture-51-10?module_item_id=29900585.
Kleinman, A. (1989). The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, And The Human Condition. Basic Books. [Digital File]. Retrieved from: https://canvas.upenn.edu/courses/1781220/files/133613891?module_item_id=29900548.
Roberts, D. (2016). The problem with race-based medicine | Dorothy Roberts. YouTube.com. [Digital File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxLMjn4WPBY.